Differential lethality of gold nanoparticles is associated with immunogenecity

Authors: G.S. Huang, Y-S Chen and H-W Yeh

Affilation: National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

Pages: 295 - 298

Keywords: gold nanoparticle, toxicity, immunogenecity

Abstract:To obtain antibodies specifically recognizing gold nanoparticles (GNPs) BALB/C mice were immunized by weekly intra-peritoneal injection of adjuvant-emulsified 5 nm, 8 nm, 12 nm, 17 nm, and 37 nm GNPs. Mice injected with 8 nm, 12 nm, 17 nm, or 37 nm GNP died within 2 weeks, while mice injected with 5 nm GNP were feeble but survived at the end of the fourth week (Figure 1). It is unexpected that GNPs of larger size were more lethal to mice. The differential toxicity might due to the difference in cytotoxicity. To obtain this information GNPs were incorporated into the growth media of NIH 3T3 cell culture. Colorimetric methyl-thiazol-tetrazolium (MTT) assay was performed to measure cytotoxicity for GNPs. LC50 ranging from 0.3 to 0.4 mM indicated that all GNPs exhibited essentially the same and low cytotoxicity (Figure 2). Transmission electron microscopy was also performed to obtain image of immunoglobulin-5 nm GNP complex (Figure 3). Evidence from surface modification indicated that the immunogenecity, not cytotoxicity of GNPs is associated with the differential lethality in animal.